Workshop on Environmental Regulation and its Alternatives

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development "today each sector waits on the others..there will not be real progress until business, government, and civil society team up in new and dynamic partnerships." New approaches to sustainability are needed. An important step in moving towards sustainability is the development of a shared vision of its goals and a cooperative approach towards meeting them. The vision would need to recognize the divergent needs at stake and identify the common interest all stakeholders share in achieving sustainable growth.

The National Academies' Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability convened a 1-day, exploratory workshop on June 14, 2004 to begin the process of developing such a shared vision and cooperative approach to more environmentally sustainable economic development. The exploratory workshop began with presentations of long-term environmental sustainability goals by leaders from industry, government, and the scientific and policy communities. Workshop participants then examined the barriers and opportunities to achieving these sustainability goals in various sectors of the US economy. The purpose of these discussions was to facilitate dialogue among industry, government, policy experts, the scientific community, and other stakeholders so that they can identify opportunities to work together to create future governance systems that would promote more environmentally sustainable economic development.

The overall charge to workshop participants was to identify: 1) legal, regulatory, and science and technology barriers to more environmentally sustainable development, and 2) opportunities for industry, government, policy, and scientific and engineering communities to work together to address these challenges through improved governance systems.

The goal of the workshop is to initiate a broad-based discussion of the issue and to identify specific parts of the problem where further work could lead to progress. Participants also will consider the most appropriate approach for making progress in each area (e.g., workshop series, consensus-building forums, expert panels, etc), including the potential role of the National Academies' Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability. The results of this exploratory workshop were presented to the Roundtable at its annual meeting on June 15th.